Social Media Will Provide Crucial Info

Besides water, food and all of those other necessities you'll hear about this hurricane season, what you really need in a hurricane is a charged cell phone, laptop or tablet.

By BEN BRASCHTHE LEDGER

LAKELAND | Besides water, food and all of those other necessities you'll hear about this hurricane season, what you really need in a hurricane is a charged cell phone, laptop or tablet.

Local government and news social media accounts give the freshest and most useful updates boiled down into chunks of information that will be easy to understand in an emergency situation.

"It (social media) gives us a much broader audience than we've ever had in the past," said Dave Walters, spokesman for Polk County Fire Rescue.

During an emergency, he said, social media gives people information about weather, road closures, evacuation statuses and more.

The Ledger has compiled a list of Twitter accounts to follow during an emergency in Polk, www.twitter.com/theledger/lists/polk-emergency-updates.

If you are a Twitter user, feel free to subscribe to the list, which will bring all of those emergency accounts into your news feed without having to follow them all individually, If you don't have a Twitter account, you can still see all the updates by going to the web address above.

For the official word from the county on Facebook during a emergency, simply "like" both www.facebook.com/polkcountyem and www.facebook.com/polkcountygovfl.

The American Red Cross Mid-Florida Region chapter will send updates on shelters, where to pick up supplies and other helpful information on its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/redcrossmidflorida.

The non-profit group has a hurricane cell phone application for both Android and iPhone users that includes much of the same information about the storm.

The Red Cross also has a service that helps relatives keep in touch if they are separated during an emergency.

To sign up during an emergency, visit www.safeandwell.org. The program allows you to list your location and contact information for others to search a database and see that you are safe.

The site is always ready, but it will be specially activated for individual disasters, according to the Red Cross.

The Ledger's website, www.theledger.com, will also be an invaluable source for breaking news during emergencies.

The Ledger's online hurricane coverage includes updates on Facebook, www.facebook.com/theledger, and Twitter, www.twitter.com/theledger, as well as breaking news posts on The Ledger's homepage.

The website and all social media accounts will be updated frequently before, during and after the storm.

Even with the power is out, a properly charged cell phone, laptop or tablet can track the problem.